The anti-Israel activist accused of mowing down independent MP Helen Haines once praised her commitment to climate change, promoted her election campaign and shared appeals for donations.

But Brendan Nugent’s prolific social media history reveals him to be former environmental campaigner who later became an outspoken critic of Australian political leaders over the war in Gaza, circulating material defending Hamas and the Houthis while trolling senior ministers.

The 43-year-old disability support pensioner from Tarrawingee, near Wangaratta in Victoria’s northeast, remains in custody after allegedly using his Toyota LandCruiser to repeatedly ram Dr Haines outside her electorate office on Monday afternoon.

The 65-year-old mother-of-three suffered catastrophic lower-body injuries and underwent emergency surgery. She remains in a critical condition and has lost one leg while surgeons are reportedly fighting to save her other leg.

Brendan Nugent’s father Rod Nugent and his partner Christine Cunningham expressed their devastation over the attack, revealing Dr Haines has been a close family friend for more than 20 years.

“Helen Haines is a deeply respected, valued and much-loved member of our local community,” they said in a statement.

“Helen has been our friend for more than 20 years and what happened to her yesterday is devastating and unfathomable.

“All of our love and all of our thoughts are with Helen and her family and friends.”

Nugent’s X account, under the handle @NotLaoTzu, has almost 11,000 posts, documenting his environmental activism, political arguments and, more recently, outspoken commentary about the Middle East.

Following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Nugent’s account increasingly shared material defending Palestinian armed resistance and disputing accounts of atrocities committed during the attacks.

On October 7, he reposted footage of Palestinian militants using a bulldozer to breach the border fence between Gaza and Israel.

In the following weeks, his account reposted commentary questioning reports about Israeli babies killed during the attacks alongside statements attributed to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah portraying Hamas’s operation as a response to decades of Palestinian suffering.

In January 2024, Nugent shared material presenting Hamas’s account of the October 7 attacks and reposted commentator Caitlin Johnstone’s essay titled “Why I Don’t Condemn Hamas For October 7”.

He also accused Western governments of enabling what he repeatedly described as genocide in Gaza and defended attacks on commercial shipping by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement.

On January 12, 2024, Nugent confronted Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles online after the Defence Minister defended US and British strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

“‘Unjustifiable attacks’? They are trying to stop more mass murder of innocent people, mass murder that you are assisting with,” Nugent wrote.

“And your masters blinken and biden didnt even let you know about the strikes, lmao you pathetic little us poodle,” he wrote.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong was another frequent target.

After Senator Wong condemned the Israeli airstrike that killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom in April 2024, Nugent appeared to accuse her of hypocrisy, responding: “what an insult to this womans life”.

In another exchange, he dismissed Senator Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a “Couple of US lap dogs” over their positions on Israel.

“Maybe if you had warned israel about its attacks the world wouldnt be where it is right now,” he added.

When Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced the deaths of two Australian citizens in an air strike in southern Lebanon in December 2023, Nugent responded: “What a disgusting official response to the killing of our citizens by israel”.

He also accused British Labour leader Keir Starmer of excusing war crimes and lashed out at ABC presenter Patricia Karvelas over an article examining deteriorating social cohesion in Australia.

“All you have is your conflation of antigenocidal sentiment with ‘antisemitism’,” he wrote.

“This article feels like a KPI you have hit for our hijacked national broadcaster. Pathetic article.”

Yet his documented exchanges with Dr Haines were comparatively benign.

He reportedly reposted her campaign announcement and appeals for donations.

In October 2019, he praised the newly elected independent after she promoted an episode of the ABC’s Q+A program discussing climate change and the future of Australian farming.

“Would’ve been nice to include a politician who takes climate change seriously, such as yourself,” he wrote.

In June 2020, Nugent questioned Dr Haines about support for forestry workers after she announced assistance for the sector.

“Hi Helen, what was the support given?” he asked.

Four months later, he responded with a simple “lol” after Dr Haines joked that her talking points on proposed federal anti-corruption legislation had been leaked.

The pair followed one another on X. Greens senator David Shoebridge was also among Nugent’s followers.

His enthusiasm for independent politicians in Indi stretched back years before Dr Haines entered Parliament.

In August 2014, Nugent celebrated former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella’s defeat by independent Cathy McGowan at the previous year’s federal election.

“When I’m having a bad day I think of Sophie Mirabella’s total humiliation..…..then I laugh my arse off, so proud of home,” he wrote.

But behind the angry political commentary, Nugent’s posts also reveal a man who described living with significant disability, chronic pain, financial hardship and a desperate desire to return to work.

In June 2022, Nugent revealed he received the disability support pension and had experienced periods of severe housing hardship.

“Also I’ve had plenty of time living with a significant disability, in a lot of chronic pain and also having to cook on a fire and wash my clothes in the river,” he wrote.

“I’m also on DSP unlike 1000s of other people with disabilities in Australia. But why keep ppl on disability support pensions when they want to work? I just want to work again”.

Nugent said he had a master’s degree with an “H1 average” but could not obtain the support necessary to resume employment.

“Disability pension not enough to manage it so I’m constantly broke spending on health, NDIS is unavailable. We are left to sit in pain 24/7,” he wrote.

Meanwhile neighbours allege Nugent had become increasingly isolated and unpredictable in the years before Monday’s alleged attack on Dr Haines.

A resident in Tarrawingee described him to the Daily Mail as a loner who spent much of his time by a creek on his rural property and seldom ventured away from home except to visit the supermarket.

“He’d go to Coles and take his dog with him, but other than that he never really left and no one has ever been to see him,” she said.

His X posts reveal a love of dogs and an enthusiasm for growing mushrooms.

His profile describes him as a “Plant Person” who believes “The world should be run by dogs and children”.

In September 2021, he posted an emotional tribute to his dog, Hoochdog, after the animal died.

“I had to say goodbye to my baby today,” he wrote.

“He helped me through so much. Just a big ball of love and fluff, always there to give more love. An absolute blessing.”

Nugent holds a Master of Forest Ecosystem Science from the University of Melbourne, according to The Guardian, and was formerly a committee member of conservation organisation Save Our Strathbogie Forest.

Group chairperson Bertram Lobert told the ABC Nugent had been an active member for about two years before the COVID-19 pandemic, travelling an hour from his Tarrawingee home to attend meetings.

“He was a person who cared about the environment. He got on generally well with people,” Mr Lobert said.

Nugent had previously campaigned against native forest logging, regularly posting about environmental research and challenging politicians over forestry policy.

Nugent’s online activity is being examined by police and counterterrorism authorities as they investigate the alleged attack on Dr Haines, according to The Australian.

Victoria Police is leading the investigation, supported by the AFP and ASIO, with detectives considering potential state and Commonwealth charges.

Nugent’s father and Dr Cunningham thanked the community members and police who rushed to Dr Haines’ aid and pledged to cooperate fully with investigators.

Dr Cunningham and Dr Haines previously served together on a hospital board, according to the Herald Sun.